Special Education Advocacy Manual

199 Pages·2003·0.67 MB·English

SPECIAL
EDUCATION
ADVOCACY
Under the Individuals
with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA)
For Children in the Juvenile Delinquency
System
Edited by
Joseph B. Tulman
& Joyce A. McGee
Produced by
The University of the District
of Columbia School of Law
Juvenile Law Clinic
Sponsored by
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Juvenile Detention
Alternatives Initiatives
_______________
SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVOCACY
UNDER THE INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT (IDEA)
FOR CHILDREN IN THE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY SYSTEM
COPYRIGHT © 1998
All rights reserved.
_______________
Copies are available for $15.00 each (includes Postage & Handling).
Send payment (check or money order payable to D.C.S.L. Foundation) to
Professor Joseph B. Tulman, University of the District of Columbia School of Law,
4200 Connecticut Ave., N. W., Building 38, Room 207, Washington, D.C. 20008.
Also available from the above address for $5.00 each:
SYMPOSIUM: THE UNNECESSARY DETENTION OF CHILDREN IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
produced by the District of Columbia Law Review,
(with articles applicable to delinquency detention in any U.S. jurisdiction).
Acknowledgments
joined this project in 1997 in order (1) to
T
include in the manual information from and
references to the 1997 amendments to the
his manual is a product of the vision
IDEA, (2) to provide a core version of the
chapter on discipline, delinquency, and
and financial support of people at the Annie
disability, and (3) to apply their unique
E. Casey Foundation through its Juvenile
expertise in education law to ensure that the
Detention Alternatives Initiative. Many
presentation of the law in this manual is
thanks to Bart Lubow and Maurice Moore of
accurate.
the Annie E. Casey Foundation for their
Susan E. Sutler ("Suji"), a colleague on
patience, support, and guidance through the
the faculty of the Juvenile Law Clinic, was
process of our producing this manual. We
the principal author of Chapter Nine: The
have received additional financial support
Special Education Process: Individualized
for editing and formatting the manual from
Education Program (IEP). Through the
Tracey Hughes and David Stern and from
decade of the 1990's, Suji has worked with
the Jerry M. Fund.
law students in the clinic as she helped to
Mary Hynes, a colleague on the faculty of
develop strategies for applying special
the Juvenile Law Clinic and my principle
education law and practice to advance the
co-author in this project, wrote much of the
cause of children in the delinquency system
text presents and elucidates special
and to champion, as well, the interests of the
education law. An expert in both special
parents of those children.
education law and child welfare (neglect)
Milton C. Lee, Jr. ("Tony"), a former
law, Mary spends much of her time using
colleague on the faculty of the Juvenile Law
special education law on behalf of children
Clinic, co-authored Chapter Two: Strategies
and families, including foster parents, who
for Using Special Education Law to
are involved in the child welfare system.
Improve the Outcome of an Individual
Joyce McGee entered the Juvenile Law
Delinquency Case. Tony brought to our
Clinic in the Spring of 1997; soon thereafter,
clinic unparalleled zeal and irrepressible
in addition to becoming the Editor-in-Chief
humor. The consummate public defender,
of the University of the District of Columbia
Tony is now "neutralized" as a hearing
Law Review, she became my co-editor of
commissioner on the bench of the District of
this manual. Displaying an uncanny ability
Columbia Superior Court.
to mince words, turn phrases, and punctuate
Numerous people have provided
sentences, she weeded through these pages.
assistance in this project, helping us to
Her more profound contribution, however,
understand, formulate, and frame the issues,
was turning "dry legal scholarship" into an
arguments, assertions, and insights that
entertainingly-formatted publication. Joyce
appear in the manual. Particularly, we
knows how to use publishing software.
extend our thanks to Loren Warboys, Susan
Thank goodness!
Eileen Ordover and Kathleen Boundy of
the Center for Law and Education also
Acknowledgments
Burrell, and Marc Schindler of the Youth of Children in the District of Columbia”, we
Law Center; Glenn Young of the National received support from The Robert F.
Institute For Literary; and Dean Rivkin of Kennedy Memorial Foundation and from the
the University of Tennessee School of Law. Annie E. Casey Foundation.
We apologize for not including the names of – Joe Tulman
all of the other people who have contributed.
For inaccuracies and other blunders, we
accept the responsibility, and we encourage
readers of this manual to contact us with
corrections and suggestions.
For their support as co-conspirators,
collaborators, and confidantes, my thanks go
to Mark Soler of the Youth Law Center,
Pattie Puritz and Wendy Shang of the
American Bar Association Juvenile Justice
Center, Vinny Schiraldi of the Justice Policy
Institute, Ellen Wayne and Leila Peterson of
the Institute for Conflict Analysis and
Resolution, and, or course, scores and scores
of law students who labored in the Juvenile
Law Clinic during the last twenty semesters
in which we have experimented with using
special education to advocate on behalf of
the children in the District of Columbia
delinquency system.
For continuing support of our work in the
Juvenile Law Clinic, including support for
our advocacy on behalf of children with
education-related disabilities who are in the
child welfare system, we thank The Eugene
and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation. We have
also received support for our special
education/delinquency advocacy work from
The Public Welfare Foundation, The Legal
Services Corporation, and The Freddie Mac
Foundation. For our work to reduce
detention rates in the District of Columbia –
specifically, to support the organizing,
writing, editing, convening, and printing of
the symposium “The Unnecessary Detention
Introduction
provides a path to productivity and to
T
acceptance.
Advocates who read and use this manual
he intended audience for this manual
can be catalysts or change agents who help
move children from delinquency systems
is defense attorneys who represent children
back into educational systems that, in turn,
in delinquency matters and in status
can lead those children to jobs and, when
offenses; the intended audience includes
appropriate, to higher education. This
also disability rights attorneys and other
manual is a "how-to" presentation for that
public interest attorneys with an interest in
effort. Moreover, the IDEA furnishes a
representing children who are enmeshed in
financial incentive for advocates to use
the delinquency system.
special education law on behalf of children
Children strive to be productive
in the delinquency system: the IDEA
and to be accepted. Children who are
provides for attorneys' fees at market rate for
marginalized and considered to be
those who prevail in asserting special
delinquent are, in large proportions,
education rights.
also children with education-related
Having prepared this manual under the
disabilities. Typically, children in the
auspices of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's
delinquency system "failed" in the
Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative
education system before entering the
(JDAI), the authors focused particularly on
delinquency system.
case precedent from the Second, Seventh,
Adults responsible for delinquency
and Ninth Circuits -- circuits with JDAI
systems and educational systems across the
sites. Lawyers who use this manual should
country have an opportunity to help make
search, whenever appropriate, for additional
those marginalized, delinquent children
binding and persuasive authority.
productive and accepted.
Faculty and law students in the Juvenile
The advocacy described in this manual
Law Clinic of the D.C. School of Law have
revolves around the Individuals with
been using special education advocacy
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal
under the IDEA for the majority of the
law incorporated into state law in all fifty
clinic's delinquency clients since 1990. This
states and in the District of Columbia.
manual reflects the experience of those
(Other laws are relevant to the enforcement
clinicians. The authors present case
of educational rights for children with
examples, strategies, and theories with the
disabilities, notably -- in the federal law --
expectation that they will be useful to
section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the
advocates throughout the country. At the
Americans with Disabilities Act. With only
same time, the authors acknowledge
a few exceptions, however, the authors have
emphasizing some laws and practices
not addressed or presented those laws in this
peculiar to the District of Columbia, and
manual.) The IDEA protects children with
they trust that this bias will not deter or
education-related disabilities, affording
distract the reader.
them a right to a free, appropriate public
education. This central right under the IDEA
Dedication
MANUAL LABOR
Dedicated: CHILD
Enforcers, executives, and executioners exigently escort. . .
(against essentially nonexistent resistance)
. . . adolescents
into jails and prisons,
amidst reports that the juvenile courts
lie dying at the age of one hundred.
Pundits, politicians, and professionals proudly produce . . .
(while plundering the public’s profits and progeny)
. . . “predators”
for the minds in manors,
and the tycoons are reduced to buffoons,
hands standing in the pens of iniquity.
Mothers, schoolmasters, and youth-managers mustn’t misunderstand . . .
(despite massive media imaginings, imagings)
. . . minors
shown on screens and bulk prints
who, at the start, in the head and the heart,
need teaching in the stead of constraining.
– JBT ‘98
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Best Defense is a Good Offense: Using Special
Education Advocacy for Delinquency Clients
I The objectives: Getting children educated; getting children out of detention;
getting children out of the delinquency system
II The Problem: Incarcerating children unnecessarily, particularly children
with disabilities
A. The prevalence of special education needs among children in the
delinquency system
B. The failure to address educational needs of pre-delinquent and court-involved
youth
III Client service considerations: Whether and how to use special education advocacy
for delinquency clients
Chapter 2: Strategies for Using Special Education Law to Improve the
Outcome of an Individual Delinquency Case
I Using special education in support of a motion to dismiss for lack
of jurisdiction
A. Status offense cases
B. Delinquency cases
II Using special education in support of a motion to dismiss for social reasons
III Using special education during the intake process
IV Using special education as a justification for keeping the child in the
community
V Using special education rights to guide the residential placement
process for delinquent youths
VI Using special education evaluations to demonstrate that a child with a
disability did not or could not comprehend Miranda Warnings
Strategic Overview
• Steps to Special Education Advocacy
• Steps to Special education Advocacy For a Delinquency Case
• Preliminary Steps and Organizing Actions
• Steps to Take in an Individual Case
• Summary of Strategies for Obtaining Release from Detention
or Other Incarceration For Delinquency Clients
• Gerald’s cases: A comprehensive joint special education and delinquency
legal strategy
• Ray’s cases: Designing a meaningful comprehensive IEP
Table of Contents
Chapter 3: An Organizing Strategy for Children’s Advocates: Combining Special
Education with Delinquency Representation
I Case aggregation strategy
II Roles of persons in the juvenile justice system
A. The child
B. The defense attorney: Ethical problems
C. The parent or guardian
D. The judge
E. Prison personnel and youth services workers
Chapter 4: Delinquency, Discipline and Disabilities
I School personnels’ programmatic obligations towards students
with behavioral issues
II Basic student rights in school discipline
A. Procedural due process
B. Searches and investigations
C. Disability discrimination in investigations
D. Case histories
III Disciplinary exclusion under the IDEA as amended
A. Legal background
B. Disciplinary exclusion as a change in placement
C. Supplementary rights and procedures in disciplinary
exclusion: Manifestation reviews
D. Disciplinary exclusion of students accused of conduct
involving drugs, weapons or dangerous behavior
E. Notice, hearing and “Stay-put” rights under
the IDEA as amended
F. IDEA rights of students not previously determined
eligible for special education and related services
G. Exclusions of ten days or less under the IDEA
IV Disciplinary exclusion under § 504 and the ADA
V School-filed crime reports and delinquency petitions
A. Morgan v. Chris L.
B. IDEA amendments of 1997
Table of Contents
Chapter 5: Special Education Rights for Juveniles
Young Adults in Adult Detention Facilities
I The IDEA and children incarcerated in juvenile facilities
II The IDEA and children incarcerated in adult corrections facilities
A. Children aged eighteen through twenty-one
B. All children incarcerated in adult facilities
III Using the IDEA in representing children in delinquency matters or in
criminal cases: Getting them out and keeping them out of incarceration
A. In general
B. Oliver’s case: Using special education advocacy to extricate a
child from a delinquency incarceration facility
C. Using special education advocacy on behalf of young
people facing incarceration in adult facilities
IV Running into walls on the way to prison deconstruction
V Conclusion
Chapter 6: The Special Education Process:
Eligibility & Entitlement
I Eligibility
A. The IDEA: The basic federal law for children with disabilities
affecting education
B. The Rehabilitation Act
II Entitlement
A. The statutory and regulatory entitlement
B. The Supreme Court’s definition of FAPE
Chapter 7: The Special Education Process: Investigating and Initiating
the Special Education Case
I An overview on investigation
A. Preparing a chart and a time line
B. Engaging an expert witness or consultant
C. Interviews: People to see and questions to ask
D. Documents to obtain
II The parent as client: Understanding the consequences of
joint representation
III Developing a theory of the case
A. Developing a special education theory
B. Developing a special education theory applicable to the
Delinquency case: A reminder of the advantages in understanding
special education advocacy for delinquency clients
Table of Contents
Chapter 8: The Special Education Process: Evaluations
I Understanding diagnosis and educational testing
A. Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED)
B. Specific Learning Disabled (SLD)
C. Mental Retardation (MR)
D. Other Tests
II Procedures related to testing
Chapter 9: The Special Education Process:
Individualized Educational Program
I Parent participation
II Purpose of the IEP conference
III Contents of the IEP
IV Transition Services
A. Goals of transition planning
B. Transition planning
C. Other legal resources for transition services
V Preparing for the IEP
VI The IEP Conference and Its Participants
A. When parties disagree
B. Follow-up to the IEP conference
Chapter 10: The Special Education Process: Placement
I Continuum of alternative placements
II The least restrictive environment
III Residential placements
Chapter 11: The Special Education Process:
Due Process Rights
I Records
II Independent evaluations
III Notice
IV Consent and surrogate parents
V The “Stay Put” provision